The Great Victorian Denial

I have seen the same condescending attitudes at work during public discussion in Melbourne about high profile Tasmanian controversies such as where to locate a new pulp mill or how to form minority government.

In each case, the chattering of Melburnians has been laced with dismissive comments about Tasmania, comments which suggest current events are somehow explained by an intrinsic fault or flaw in Tasmanian society, stemming, you guessed it, from colonial times.

Clearly, little has changed since the mid-nineteenth century when an influx of Tasmanians to the Victorian goldfields sparked fears in Melbourne of an increase in the crime, corruption, laziness and “unnatural vice” associated with “Vandemonians”.

Of course, many Victorians will bridle at the suggestion they are dismissive of Tasmania.

“I love Tassie”, they invariably claim. “It’s so pretty.”

But to my ear this is no different than the patronising cliche “I just love my gay friends, they’re so much fun”.

It shows the kind of shallow regard people reserve for cute little dogs, until they bite.

The impact of Victoria’s patronising attitudes to Tasmania is felt in different ways.

Some Tasmanians I know living in Melbourne say the condescension they encounter makes them work harder to prove themselves. Others just hide their origins altogether.

But ultimately it is Victorians themselves who suffer most from their dismissiveness.

Their inability to see Tasmania in its own terms means they cannot understand it, or what it has to offer them politically and culturally.

Most of all, they cannot understand themselves until they acknowledge that so much of what they are is a product of the island to their south.